Backing up files

[MillerTime GFG]

I like to backup my files every month generally, but there has to be an easier way to do it I'm thinking. I basically copy from desktop, and paste into my external hardrive. I believe there's a command to automatically backup your files is there not?

TIA!

[Arsenal14]

I use Backblaze as a cloud based backup solution. Basically all of your files are uploaded to their server, so as you make changes on your server everything is kept synced. If your hard drive crashes you can get them to send you a copy of everything on a USB key or a hard drive. For $60/year (I think it's US dollars) it seems pretty reasonable. Beats me having to remember to do backups to my external drive and then shuttling the external drive to my office and back (no point having the backup copy sitting next to the original in my house).

The downside is I have 3 TB of data and a pretty slow internet connection so the initial backup is taking months and requires getting an unlimited data plan.

[topfiverecords]

I use Google Drive and pay $2/month to get 100Gig, which is probably low compared to other services, but I like being able to add files to gmails directly, or move attachments straight to the drive. The desktop app could use some refinement to the UI but it works. There's also mobile apps to access your files which is nice when I'm on a job site and need to pull up a pdf or attach something to an email. Just download the program and set the folders you want it to manage. It auto uploads/downloads any new or updated files.

I used to use an external hard drive and looked at a networked drive but prefer cloud because the thought of losing all my business files in a fire/disaster is like Edmonton (No Good).

One negative with cloud backup for me is with the large file sizes of projects I work on I can't have autosaves backed up as it would be uploading to the cloud all day long. At least with my slow Telus upload bandwidth.

Another thing that bugs me is if I save a file, it begins to upload to the cloud, and then if it hasn't finished uploading yet the next time I do it sets the file read only and makes you save as another name. Which then uploads that new file also and you end up with multiple files to manage. So when working in CAD (where saving frequently is very necessary) I turn Drive off and twice a day turn it on just to backup.

[MillerTime GFG]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll look into those, as the peace of mind knowing your files are automatically being backed up would be unreal. My heart skips a beat every time my computer does something out of the ordinary.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG

I like to backup my files every month generally, but there has to be an easier way to do it I'm thinking. I basically copy from desktop, and paste into my external hardrive. I believe there's a command to automatically backup your files is there not?

I use Synctoy https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/down....aspx?id=15155, which is free from MS and can be set up to run as an automated task every day. The big advantage to it, aside from not having to do do the copying manually, is that will only copy changes, which is much faster than dragging and dropping every time.

I have my desktop and 2 other PCs set to sync up my NAS every night. Works beautifully.

[GoinAllTheWay]

NAS all the way. I HATE the idea of storing my pictures/videos on someone elses server. I know most are fine with it but I also dislike the upload times like Aresnal said. You have to pay more up front, sure, but you keep it local, it's way faster and you can still take a drive to another location to achieve the same thing as cloud storage.

[DoubleF]

Keep in mind a synchronized file vs a backup file are different things. Although they are similar to some, it's actually closer to a square vs rectangle argument. Most average people only need to sync files, most don't need to do a true "backup".

Sync means that you can go from one device to another no prob and keep going. But if you delete, it deletes it across devices. (ie: Drop box, One drive etc.)

Backup on the other hand once done is a frozen snap shot in time. Most people don't need true backup, just syncing. (ie: Copy/Paste into external drive until you over write the drive). Sometimes you want multiple backups to find a file in a certain stage in a previous time period. Truly backing something up means creating multiple copies of files.


Google drive is a weird in between one. It syncs, but also can create a "backup" of deleted items until you do the true delete of the "deleted files". I haven't had much experience with online backups because I prefer doing local backups like other users.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG

I like to backup my files every month generally, but there has to be an easier way to do it I'm thinking. I basically copy from desktop, and paste into my external hardrive. I believe there's a command to automatically backup your files is there not?

TIA!

I use a little program called Fastcopy. You can make a bat file that you just double click on and have it copy form one spot to the other, or add it to task scheduler and it runs once a week or whatever. It can do syncing so it will only copy the new/changed files. I've used it for years at work to do daily backups of several TB's of files. It's also super fast because it doesn't use the builtin Windows copying code, and doesn't get hung up on asking questions for duplicate files and other stupid stuff. It also makes a log so you can see it is doing its job, or what didn't work.

The only drawback is the help files are a little cryptic because the author is Japanese. But if you are interested I can give you a sample to get it going.

https://ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html.en